


Hail to the Victors

by TheWalkingGrimes



Series: Tales of District Four [16]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Quarter Quell Announcement, Some Ableism, relatively tame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27751201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalkingGrimes/pseuds/TheWalkingGrimes
Summary: Mags will sacrifice anything for her children.
Relationships: Implied Annie Cresta/Finnick Odair - Relationship, Mags & Annie Cresta
Series: Tales of District Four [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2018845
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	Hail to the Victors

**Author's Note:**

> The companion to [On the Cusp of Revolution](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27614531).

Almost all of the District Four victors are gathered in Mags’s house for the announcement.

Plutarch was been able to give her a head’s up earlier today through a coded message - the Quarter Quell is going to be announced that day. Mags doesn’t know what she will be able to do with the information since she is officially no longer permitted to mentor after her stroke a few years back, but she’ll advise her fellow victors as best she can.

Annie presses a warm mug of tea into Mags’s hand. “Drink this,” the girl tells her softly, eyes flickering around nervously toward the rest of the victors who have gathered. She isn’t used to being around so many people at once, even though all of the people here have at one point or another taken the time to check in on her. There is a distinct separation between their little trio and the rest of the victors - probably because the other victors still have families of their own. 

Mags accepts the cup and Annie sinks down into the couch next to her. A few moments later, Meri sits on Annie’s other side, pressing a comforting arm against their youngest victor.

The men are gathered in the back - Shale, Eldoris, Drake, and Orion, all talking amongst themselves and ignoring the fashion show that Mags assumes is preceding the Quell announcement. 

“Oh, I like that one!” Meri is saying to Annie, nudging her to get her to pay attention to the screen instead of staring at her lap. “Isn’t that one pretty?”

Annie’s eyes flick up to the screen and then back down. Her hand twists under her shirt, around the ring Mags knows she keeps hidden on a chain against her breast. “Very.”

Mags very much wants to tell Meri to be quiet, but it isn’t the younger woman’s fault she knows nothing of Annie’s pain. Instead, she grasps Annie’s other hand and squeezes it. “It’ll be over soon,” Mags promises.

Soon enough the wedding dress voting is over but nobody relaxes because now the time has come for the Quell announcement. All the men fall silent and gather behind the back of the couch.

And while they sit there, Annie’s fingernails digging bloody crescents into Mags’s hand, she suddenly has a flash of premonition. 

A slow dawning horror, an understanding even before the words leave Snow’s mouth. 

Why Plutarch had told her to bring all the victors together. 

Why he had sounded so sympathetic, so  _ sorry.  _

“... will be reaped from the existing pool of victors.”

There’s dead silence in Mags’s house.

“What?”

“Wait - no, he can’t mean -”

“Oh god - oh god.”

And then Annie starts screaming.

She rips her hand from Mags’s and starts tearing at her hair, murmuring a litany of nononononononononono.

For once, none of the other victors are alarmed or uncomfortable with her display of instability (her “madness” they all say behind her back and Mags never corrects them because even if she knows Annie is just sensitive and suffering from all that she’s seen, it is far far safer for the rest of Panem to think she has completely lost her mind).

Because all the rest of them are losing it too.

“He can’t  _ do  _ that.” Eldoris is saying over and over again. He sounds like a child, arguing over the rules of a game. “He can’t - it wouldn’t be right. They can’t make us go back in - we won. We won. We don’t owe them anything.”

Poor Eldoris. The worst thing that ever happened to him as a victor was being forgotten. He has no idea what the Capitol can take.

“Okay, okay.” Drake is determined. “We can still - we can have some control over this situation. Obviously we’re not going to send Mags back in. Or - or Annie -”

“You want me to volunteer?” Meri asks in disbelief, her voice high and shrill. “I have - I have  _ children  _ Drake. I can’t - you can’t ask me to do that.”

“We’ll sort it out. And for the men - we should figure out who has the best chance and they should volunteer. So not Eldoris, not with his knee, and then maybe we should bring it to a vote -”

But then Annie is  _ flying  _ at Drake, striking at him with such speed that he doesn’t have time to defend himself. “We’re not going to  _ vote.”  _ She seethes, fury alighting every crease in her face. “You can’t just condemn someone like that, it’s not  _ right-” _

“Annie!” Mags barks at her, and Annie retreats while Drake touches his bloody cheeks (she’d scratched him, Mags realizes now). “Leave him!”

Annie comes back to her, shaking with anger and fear and Mags gathers her in her arms, kissing the top of her head and murmuring reassurances into her hair. 

“We shouldn’t make decisions like that until  _ everyone  _ is here.” Shale tells them, casting a significant look over at Annie. “She’s right, that’s not fair. We’ll discuss it again later.”

“We shouldn’t be discussing it at all!” Meri argues, shooting a guilty look over at Mags and Annie. It’s just the three of them, and it is obvious Meri has the best chance of coming out alive.

“I’ll volunteer.”

Everyone falls silent. Annie stills in Mags’s arms.

“What?” Eldoris’s face is pale. “Mags, no. You can’t-”

“I’ll volunteer.” Mags insists. “Lived long enough.”

They all gape at her in horror. It’s a death sentence, they all know. She isn’t volunteering to fight, she’s volunteering to die.

But if she does, it means that whoever goes in with her will have a chance at survival. She’s lived so long, and she doesn’t feel nearly ready, but she’s lost so so so very many children over the years. She’ll be damned if she lets them take back any of the few that she’s managed to scrape and salvage from the arena.

Annie, the sweetest of her children, cries in Mags’s arms. She’s suffered so much in her short life and Mags would give her life over and over again just to bring the girl peace. Meri, the most practical, looks stricken, but understanding. She’s a mother, she would do the same for her children. Eldoris, naivest of her children, just can’t seem to understand while Orion drinks steadily in the background. Drake, who might just be the most selfish of them all, sinks to the floor with his head in his hands as if the reality of what they’re facing is sinking in finally. And it’s just as well they’re talking about this when Finnick  _ isn’t _ here, because of all her children he’d put up the most fuss about it and it’s probably for the best that he’s not told until everyone else has already been convinced of it. 

Shale, the oldest of her children, just gives her a grave nod.

“You’re the best of all of us, Mags.”

It’s not true. Mags has done horrible things, killed and cheated and sacrificed others in order to survive, in order to bring just a few home. She’s watched the Capitol take the best of them and tear them apart, sink their teeth into them and destroy them over and over again for their own entertainment. 

But it has to have all been worth something. It has to.

_ Plutarch Heavensbee, you’d better have a plan. _


End file.
